17 Surprising Ways to Cultivate Happiness as a Habit

Cultivate Happiness as a Habit

How would you like to make happiness a daily habit instead of letting it be a product of chance?

For many of us, happiness is a result of some external circumstance, but it doesn’t have to be. The 17 methods listed below will put the power back in your hands. They will give you the means to choose happiness when and where you want. The best part is that all of them are validated by the expertise of psychologists, neuroscientists or experts in the field of developing the human potential. Every single method has been tried, tested and proven to produce the results you are looking for.

17 Surprising Ways to Cultivate Happiness as a Habit

So, are you ready to cultivate joy into your everyday life and turn happiness into a habit?

Here are 17 surprising ways you too can cultivate happiness as a habit live the life you’ve always wanted to live: a happy and peaceful one.

1. Set preemptive strikes

Preemptive strikes are clear plans on when and where you will execute a certain action. Studies have shown that when a person sets a preemptive strike in preparation for the desired action, they are more likely to take the action.

A group of elderly patients in Scotland that used preemptive strikes while recovering from hip or knee surgery began walking twice as fast as patients that did not.

Whatever actions bring you joy and drive your life forward, create clear plans with very specific instructions to your brain on when and where you intend to engage in those actions.

Set preemptive strikes for all the habits you want to ingrain in your life and you will accelerate your goals faster than you ever thought possible.

2. Cultivate happiness as a habit by welcoming fear

Fear is not your enemy. As long as you keep growing and taking steps outside your comfort zone, it is only natural to experience fear.

In my 28 years, I have spent 7 months in a war zone with the US Marines, climbed mountains in the Himalayas, scuba dived into underwater caves, jumped out of airplanes, quit a well-paying full-time job to spend $15,000 skiing across the second largest icecap in the world, and started two companies. The one common element in all those experiences was fear.

And why is courage important?

Because as C.S. Lewis once said

The more you welcome fear, the more you build your muscle of courage and in turn find growth in all other virtues.

Do things that scare you. Push yourself until the butterflies in your stomach go wild. Each step beyond your comfort zone will reveal to you the infinite possibilities that live on the other side of fear. You simply have to take the leap to experience them.

3. Accept your negativity

All human beings are born with what psychologists call “the negativity bias.” It is an evolutionary construct that has kept us alive as a species. That is why we naturally focus on what we don’t have in life, not what we do. Accepting that we have a negativity bias normalizes those moments when we are negative.

The problem that most of us go through is not just being negative, it’s the judgment we have about ourselves for being that way. Many of us hold on to big sticks that we beat ourselves up with for not being perfect. But now that you know we are evolutionarily conditioned toward the negative, you can let go of that stick.

This is not to say that we are stuck in a negative space for the rest of our lives. Many of the methods mentioned below will help condition the negativity out of our brains, but this awareness helps normalize those moments when we find our minds wandering toward the negative.

4. Appreciate everywhere

I used to hate going into New York City. Crowded areas, tall buildings, busy streets, it all scared me. Probably a side effect from my experience in Iraq. But I found a way to love it.

Every time I go into the city, I practiced appreciating everything and everyone. I told myself things like “wow! It must have taken so much hard work to build these buildings,” or “I really appreciate all the people that planned out, organized and built these streets.”

By appreciating everything everywhere, I turned things I hated into things I enjoyed.

5. Anchor in joy

Anchoring an emotion allows you to experience it at will. To anchor in joy, look back into your past and recall a positive memory. Really feel the emotion of happiness and joy that you experienced during that event. While you are in that state, imagine a circle in front of you. What color is the circle? What size is it? Visualize all the details of the circle and then step into it. Let that circle be your circle of joy.

Your brain will start to form a pathway in your brain that connects the circle to pleasure, so that any time you want, anywhere you want, all you have to do is picture the circle, step into it and you will create joy.

6. Smile

Psychologist Robert Zajonc and numerous other researchers since have proven that the act of smiling leads to the emotion of happiness. Smiling is then not just a side effect of happiness, it causes it as well. It has even been shown to reduce stress and depression. So the next time you are feeling the blues, just smile and force your mind to respond with happiness.

7. Cultivate happiness by breathing properly

Taking long, slow breaths calm down the nervous system and creates a physiological change in your body.

If you find yourself hijacked by fear, stress or anxiety, pause, breathe in for four seconds and out for four seconds. You will immediately find yourself shifting into a place of peace, comfort, and happiness.

8. Daydream

The mind cannot distinguish between something that is vividly imagined and something that is real.

In their quest for mastery, Russian gymnasts have found that the optimal level of training was 25% physical and 75% mental. Most of their preparation time for the Olympics was devoted to daydreaming images of them performing their routine and winning the gold.

From Russian gymnasts to Michael Phelps to personal development Guru’s like Jack Canfield, they all use the power of mental imagery to produce results in their lives.

If you want to be happier, just go into your mind and dream of the place that brings you joy. Plant that feeling into your body and take action in service of bridging the gap between the internal reality and the external one.

9. Be still

Jack Canfield, the bestselling author of the Chicken Soup for the Soul series and the Success Principles, credits meditation to be the number one strategy responsible for his success.

Science too validates its power:

In his research, neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Newberg scanned the brains of chanting Sikhs, meditating Buddhists and praying nuns. He found that they had an increase in activity in the areas of the brain associated with focus and awareness. These are the parts of the brain that give us the power to choose our destiny instead of being victimized by external circumstances.

Every day, for just 12 minutes, close your eyes, remove all distractions and sit in stillness. Breathe in and out slowly. Focus your mind on your breathing. Your breath acts like an anchor for your mind to come back to when it wanders. And it will, especially at first. But that’s okay. In time you will be able to sit in stillness with your mind.

In just eight weeks of practicing this meditation every day, Dr. Newberg found that a group of elderly participants in his study had noticeable changes in their brain activity and experienced an improvement in memory as well.

10. Seek refuge

All of us have an innate need to be secure and comfortable. We want to know that the world is not going to fall apart around us. This is built in us right from the very first time our parents hold us in their arms.

But the world is not always a safe and secure place to be. Evolutionary constructs like the negativity bias only make it worse, because they have us create dangers even if no real ones exist.

Ever imagined the worst-case scenario to be much worse than it actually is? That’s the negativity bias in action.
To create a safe space for us to go back too, regardless of the state of the world around us, all we have to do is seek refuge in our minds.

Go to a place where you feel secure. Say the words out loud “I find refuge in…” Sense the comfort and security from that refuge throughout your body.

Neuroscientist Dr. Rick Hanson says “taking refuge pulls you away from reactivating situations and concerns, and then fills you with positive influences. As you rest increasingly in a background sense of refuge, neurons are quietly stitching a safety net for you.”

11. Cultivate happiness as a habit by Eexercising

Richard Branson attributes exercise to be the number one factor contributing to his productivity. And he runs a multibillion-dollar empire. Pushing your body to its limits and beyond increases confidence and improves the overall quality of life.

James Prochaska, a researcher at the University of Rhode Island says, “Exercise spills over. There’s something about it that makes other good habits easier.

For at least three days a week, do something that pushes you physically and you will experience greater joy in all areas of your life.

12. Find happy people

If you want to be happier, start spending more time with happy people. Emotions are infectious. Dr. Oberman and Dr. Ramachandran have shown that networks in our brain associated with certain actions activate when we see others engaging in those actions, even if we are sitting still. Similarly, they are activated in response to the emotions of others as well. Psychologists refer to the neurons that create this phenomenon as “mirror neurons.”

What that means is that the more time you spend around people who exemplify the life you want to lead, the easier it will be to create that life. Your body and mind will naturally begin to mirror the people you spend the most time with.

13. Erase unhappy vocabulary

Tony Robbins says, “Simply by changing your habitual vocabulary – the words you consistently use to describe the emotions in your life – you can instantly change how you think, feel and how you live.”

Replace words like depression from your vocabulary with words like joy and you will make happiness a regular habit.

14. Cultivate happiness as a habit by labeling your emotions

In his research, neuroscientist Dr. Lieberman discovered that the act of assigning a label to an emotion reduces its impact. It lessens activity in the emotional parts of the brain and increases activity in the parts of the brain associated with focus and awareness.

The next time you find yourself in a disempowered state, assign a label to the emotion to separate yourself from the experience. This will allow you to be proactive about the emotions you choose as opposed to being at the effect of external circumstances and letting them dictate your emotions.

15. Create new meanings to your experiences

Every experience in life has no inherent meaning to it. We assign meanings to our experiences and those meanings shape our quality of life.

The psychiatrist Victor Frankl found an empowering meaning to life even while imprisoned in a concentration camp during the Holocaust. In his bestselling book, Man’s Search for Meaning, he writes “Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”

We always get to choose the meaning we associate to an experience and the impact it has on us.

If you go through an experience that puts you in disempowered state, follow the previous step by labeling the emotion you experiencing and then ask yourself what else can you make it mean. If you struggle to come up with a new meaning, spend a few minutes in your circle of joy or travel into the future to your ideal lifestyle. From that place, then ask yourself, what else can I make this mean?

You will surprise yourself by what you come up with.

16. Cultivate happiness by time traveling

Researchers have found that every time you recall a memory, it changes. You are essentially recalling the last time you remembered that memory, not the memory itself. As such, whatever you are going through in the present moment of recall alters the structure of the memory.

In her work, cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Loftus has demonstrated that memories are easily distorted and it is surprisingly simple to even implant false memories.

If repeatedly practiced, you have the power to travel back in time and alter unhappy memories by creating new neurological pathways in your brain.

Put yourself in a happy state by using some of the other methods mentioned in this post. Then recall the memory, but change the contents of it. Imagine that something else happened, something other than what actually happened. Keep doing this while anchored into a very positive state and in time you will literally change the memory into a happy one.

17. Cultivate happiness as a habit by challenging yourself

In the bestselling book, Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, after decades of research Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi found that what ultimately produces the most joy in people is the state of Flow. Of this state, he says, “the best moments usually occur when a person’s body or mind is stretched to its limits in a voluntary effort to accomplish something difficult and worthwhile.”

If you look back at your life today, what are the moments you treasure the most? Usually, that answer falls into one of two categories, a relationship or an accomplishment.

For me I am most proud of the time I served in the Marines, the mountains I have climbed, the businesses I have started and the one-month I spent dragging a 190-pound sled 350 miles across the second largest icecap in the world. All of those experiences involved pushing my mind and body to its limits.

The more you challenge yourself and do what you once thought was impossible, the greater levels of joy, freedom, and accomplishment you will experience in your life.

How often do you feel really happy? Do you think happiness is a goal? You can share your insights by joining the conversation in the comment section below

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Akshay Nanavati

As an adventurer, Marine Corps veteran, speaker and successful online entrepreneur, Akshay Nanavati has dedicated his life to exploring the limits of the human potential.To learn more about Akshay, visit www.existing2living.com

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Toward a description of the conformations of denatured states of proteins. Comparison of a random coil model with NMR measurements

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  Toward a Description of the Conformations of Denatured States of Proteins. Comparisonof a Random Coil Model with NMR Measurements Klaus M. Fiebig, Harald Schwalbe, Matthias Buck, † Lorna J. Smith, andChristopher M. Dobson* Oxford Centre for Molecular Sciences, New Chemistry Laboratory, Uni V  ersity of Oxford, South Parks Road,Oxford OX1 3QT, U.K. Recei V  ed: September 18, 1995; In Final Form: December 11, 1995 X A strategy is proposed to describe the backbone conformations sampled in denatured states of proteins. Mainchain dihedral angle distributions are extracted from the protein data base and used to predict NMR parameterssuch as coupling constants and NOE intensities. A simple model in which each residue samples its  φ , ψ distribution noncooperatively has been found to reproduce many of the features of experimental NMR datafor hen egg-white lysozyme denatured in 8 M urea at low pH. This model provides a framework whichallows identification of residual structure inherent in experimental data of nonnative states of proteins. Theeffects of introducing local conformational cooperativity on NMR parameters are discussed and analyzed inlight of the experimental data for lysozyme. Introduction Over the past few years interest in characterizing denaturedstates of proteins has grown rapidly, particularly because of theirimportance in studies of protein folding and protein stability; 1 - 3 such states are also believed to play a role during transport of proteins across membranes and in intracellular protein turnover. 4 Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) techniques have beeninstrumental in the study of the structural properties of denaturedstates at a residue specific level. Studies using conventionalhomonuclear 2D methods are, however, hampered by the limitedchemical shift dispersion which leads to extreme overlap of theNMR resonances. 5 Despite this, in some cases at least partialresonance assignment has been possible using magnetizationtransfer techniques. 6,7 Insight has also come from hydrogenexchange studies 8 - 10 and 2D NMR structural characterizationsof smaller peptide fragments excised from the sequences of proteins. 11 - 17 The development of heteronuclear 3D NMRtechniques has, however, had a major impact enabling extensivesite-specific characterization of denatured states of proteins. 3,18 - 25 Near-complete resonance assignments can be obtained whichallow the extraction of conformational sensitive parameters suchas coupling constants, chemical shifts, and homonuclear (NOE)and heteronuclear relaxation data. For native states such NMRparameters are readily interpretable in terms of specific featuresof protein structures. 26 Interpretation of data derived fromdenatured states, however, is often more complex due to theconformational heterogeneity of these states. If the intercon-version between conformers is fast on the NMR time scale thenthe observed NMR parameters will be averaged; 27 even in thecase of highly disordered states, however, this does not lead tothe complete absence of NOE’s. 18,21,24,28 One strategy used toovercome the complexity of data analysis is to interpret chemicalshifts in terms of their deviation from so-called “random coil”chemical shifts measured experimentally in small unstructuredtetrapeptides. 26,29 - 31 Patterns of deviations from random coilchemical shifts are taken to be indicative of regions of residualstructure, which may be involved in preferential interactionswith neighboring residues. This strategy, however, does notprovide a detailed description of the conformations sampled inthese areas of residual structure.Here a different approach is pursued in which NMRparameters are predicted by explicitly modeling denatured stateconformations and their relative energies (populations). Weightsfor the sampling of conformational space could be defined bya number of methods but here are derived from main chaindihedral angle distributions extracted from the protein data base.Experimental NMR data for hen egg-white lysozyme denaturedin urea at low pH and for peptide fragments taken from thelysozyme sequence allow evaluation of these predictions andthe underlying models. We find significant agreement betweenexperimental and predicted NMR parameters for a model basedon the derived weights which does not assume any cooperativityin the structure. The model provides a powerful frameworkfor distinguishing random from nonrandom (residual) structurein proteins under denaturing conditions. Residual structureobserved experimentally in denatured lysozyme and its peptidefragments may be due to local changes in dihedral propensitieswhich may for instance arise from a change in the ionizationstate of the residue. Alternatively, residual structure may bedue to cooperative effects between residues. We put forward amodel which introduces cooperativity between sequentialresidues in the chain and evaluate its effects on predicted NMRparameters. Methods(a)  O , ψ  Distributions.  In recent years, a number of models 32 - 35 have utilized main chain  φ , ψ  dihedral distributionsextracted from the protein data bank 36,37 to describe localconformational preferences in the polypeptide chain. In thiscontext the term “local” refers to interactions between neighbor-ing residues in the sequence. Most of these models assumethat averaging over a large database of   φ , ψ  dihedral conforma-tions will eliminate specific nonlocal interactions present in eachof the individual protein structures. 38 Experimental support forthis assumption has been recently reported. 39,40 Figure 1demonstrates that  φ , ψ  populations differ significantly forindividual amino acid types which indicates that the latter exhibitspecific local conformational preferences. 41,42 The majority of these differences can be rationalized in terms of local andintraresidue steric or electrostatic interactions. For example, a † Present address: Department of Chemistry, Harvard University, 12Oxford Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.* To whom correspondence should be addressed. X Abstract published in  Ad  V  ance ACS Abstracts,  January 15, 1996. 2661  J. Phys. Chem.  1996,  100,  2661 - 26660022-3654/96/20100-2661$12.00/0 © 1996 American Chemical Society  comparison of the  φ , ψ  distributions for alanine and valine(Figure 1, A and B, respectively) shows a marked increase inthe population of the less sterically crowded    region for valine,reflecting its bulky    branched side chain. In addition, as Figure1C demonstrates, there is a significant population of the allowedleft-handed  R  ( R L ) region for glycine and asparagine which isgreatly reduced or absent for the rest of the amino acids. Thelarge (17%) population of  R L  for glycine has been rationalizedby it being the least sterically restricted amino acid. Forasparagine (7% R L ) it has been suggested that the R L  conforma-tion is stabilized by H bonding of the side chain NH with thebackbone carbonyl of the adjacent residues. 38 The random coil model proposed in the present study is basedon the distributions of   φ , ψ  angles obtained from 85 high-resolution crystal structures 43 in the protein data bank (PDB). 36,37 Swindells  et al . 38 have used an identical set of protein structureswhich have a resolution of 2.0 Å or better,  R  factors of 20% orbetter, and sequence similarities of 30% or less. In order tocalculate NMR observables, the main-chain dihedral distribu-tions found in these 85 proteins are used directly in the form of amino acid specific libraries of   φ , ψ  dihedral angle pairs, eachpair depicted as a point in Ramachandran plots of the type seenin Figure 1, A and B. A model which samples dihedral anglesat random may thus approximate a maximally disorderedpolypeptide while retaining as a statistical average some of theconformational biases due to the local interactions of the chain.It is assumed that interconversion between the different  φ , ψ conformations is fast on the NMR time scale so that NMRparameters are averaged. (b) Calculation of Coupling Constants.  3  J  HNH R  couplingconstants were predicted directly from the  φ  distribution foreach amino acid using the Karplus equation: 44 - 46 First, individual coupling constants  3  J  HNH R  were calculated foreach  φ , ψ  pair of the distribution. Then, in the second step, thepopulation average  〈 3  J  HNH R 〉  was obtained by averaging theindividual  3  J  HNH R  values. (c) Calculation of Random Coil NOE Intensities.  Theprediction of NOE intensities requires an atomic level descrip-tion of the peptide residues. We have used a simplified peptidemodel shown in Figure 2 in the present study. It consists of anall atom peptide backbone representation (atoms N, H  N  , C R , H R ,C, O) on to which C    and H    atoms are added for all aminoacids but glycine, for which both H R  atoms are modeledexplicitly. All H    atoms are treated as united atoms positionedcollinearly with the C R - C    bond placed at the center of massof the H    atoms, in order to account approximately for   1 averaging. Repulsive van der Waals interactions between N,H N , C R , H R , C, O, C   , and H    atoms are modeled explicitly bydisallowing steric overlap between these atoms, while interac-tions involving other side chain atoms (C γ , C δ , etc.) areneglected and are not included in the current model. We arepresently extending the sophistication of the model to includean all-atom side chain representation which will provide a moreaccurate description of side chain protons.Ensembles of conformations are generated by a Monte Carloprocedure which for each conformation generates a new set of  φ , ψ  backbone angles. This procedure selects  φ , ψ  angles atrandom from the amino acid specific dihedral angle libraries. Figure 1.  φ , ψ  Ramachandran plot for alanine (A) and valine (B). Eachpoint represents one of the 2096 and 1728 entries found for alanineand valine, respectively.  R , left handed R ( R L ), and    regions as definedby Morris et al. 58 are indicated in the figures. The overall number of residues populating the    region is higher for valine (B) than for alanine(A). (C) Histogram of   R ,  R L , and    populations. Figure 2.  The peptide model. In order to derive distances as a functionof the intervening  φ , ψ  angles, a pentapeptide model with explicitbackbone atoms was used. Bonds with torsion angles that haverotational freedom are indicated by thick lines. Side chain H    atoms(except for glycine) are represented by an united atom positioned atthe center of mass of the hydrogens. Repulsive van der Waalsinteractions are taken into account using standard cutoffs. 59 Thedistance between the H R  of residue  i  and the H  N  of residue  i  +  3 is afunction of the dihedrals  ψ i ,  φ i + 1 ,  ψ i + 1 ,  φ i + 2 , and  ψ i + 2  as indicated.The NOE intensity is proportional to the inverse sixth power of theproton - proton distance,  d  . 3  J  HNH R ) 6.4 cos 2 ( φ - 60 ° ) - 1.4 cos( φ - 60 ° ) + 1.9 (1) 2662  J. Phys. Chem., Vol. 100, No. 7, 1996   Fiebig et al.  All other bond and torsion angles are kept at their ideal (average)values. Conformers with steric overlap are excluded. Predictedvalues of NMR observable parameters, especially NOE intensi-ties, converge at sampling sizes of 10 5 conformers.NOE intensities were calculated using the two-spin ap-proximation 47 by population-weighted averaging of the inversesixth power of the respective proton - proton distance  〈 1/  d  6 〉  overan ensemble of 10 5 random coil structures generated by theMonte Carlo sampling procedure. NOE intensities for allcombinations of H N , H R , and H    protons of ( i ,  i + 1), ( i ,  i + 2),and ( i ,  i + 3) residue pairs were thus obtained. To display theresults graphically, standard NOE maps with intensity cutoffsequivalent to proton - proton distances of 2.5, 3.5, and 4.3 Åfor strong, medium, and weak NOE’s, respectively, were used. 48 For NOE’s that involve glycine and residues having methylgroups, a 0.4 Å larger cutoff was used for the H R protons (forglycine) or H    protons (for the other residues) to account forthe increased NOE intensity arising from multiple protons, theneglect of the longer side chains of valine, isoleucine, andtheronine in the simplified model, and the specific relaxationproperties of methyl groups. 49 (d) Calculation of Cooperative NOE Intensities.  To modelthe effects of cooperativity, the random coil sampling procedurewas modified to incorporate the cooperativity inherent in the φ , ψ  distributions of tripeptides found in the protein data base.Statistics on tripeptide segments from the PDB (data not shown)indicate that 27% are in the “all- R ” ( RRR ) conformation, 18%are in the “all-   ” (   ) conformation, and the rest are in mixedconformations ( R   ,  R   R , etc.).  R  and    regions are definedin Figure 1A,B. In the modified Monte Carlo samplingprocedure we introduce a cooperativity factor  c R . For therandom noncooperative case ( c R )  0) the population of all- R conformers is equal to the product of the R propensities ( P i R ) of the individual residues ( i  )  1, 2, 3),The most cooperative case is defined as  c R )  1. Here thelikelihood of the all- R  conformation is equal to the minimumof the individual  R  probabilities  P i R This is to ensure that the intrinsic  R  population of eachindividual residue is not exceeded. For example, in a tripeptidewith 30, 40, and 50%  R -propensity for residues 1, 2, and 3,respectively, the highest possible all- R  population  P max RRR atcooperativity  c R )  1 is 30%. The minimum all- R  population P min RRR (at  c R )  0), however, is 6%. The all- R  population isdefined as a function of the cooperativity factor  c R asFrom the above equations we can derive a cooperativity weight w RRR ( g 1.0) which is used to weight each all- R  conformationgenerated by the Monte Carlo procedure,When introducing cooperativity weighting factors care mustbe taken not to perturb the intrinsic  R  populations  P i R of eachresidue  i . Removal of this bias is facilitated by an additionalweighting factor  w i R ( e 1.0) for each amino acid  i  to rescale itsoverall  R  population  P i R . For a tripeptide consisting of threedifferent amino acids, the following equation must hold:This equation ensures that the sum of the different types of populations in which residue  i  is in the  R  state is equal to itstotal  R  population  P i R . The first term in the above equation isthe rescaled population of tripeptides with residue  i  in the  R Ramachandran region; the second term corresponds to confor-mations where two residues ( i  and  j * i ) are in the R state, andthe final term accounts for the cooperative  c R dependent all- R population. With the above equation the weighting factors canbe defined iteratively asNoncooperative conformations (those that are not all- R ) areweighted by the product of the individual residues weightingfactors  w i R given that the  φ , ψ  angles of the residue are in the R region of the Ramachandran map. Weighting factors forresidues that are not in the R region are unity. Although only R  cooperativity is discussed in the present paper, equationssimilar to the ones above have been also derived for   cooperativity. Results and Discussion(a) Characteristics of the NMR Parameters of a RandomCoil.  Using the proposed model for the random coil statedescribed in the previous sections we can predict the NMRparameters expected for a maximally disordered peptide ordenatured protein with a given amino acid sequence. Figure 3shows  3  J  HNH R  values, NOE ratios, and NOE pattern predictedfor three segments of lysozyme (residues 19 - 24, 50 - 55, and95 - 119); these have been chosen as illustrations as they containvery different structures (turn,   -sheet, and R -helix, respectively)in the native state of lysozyme, but are also regions with reducedspectral overlap and complete and unambiguous spectral as-signments. The full set of lysozyme data will be discussed ina subsequent publication. 50 It is immediately apparent thatparameters such as  3  J  HNH R  coupling constants and the R H - NH/ NH - NH intensity ratios for NOE’s between sequential ( i ,  i + 1) residues are predicted to be far from uniform along thesequence. The observed differences directly reflect the varia-tions in  φ  and  φ , ψ  torsion angle preferences of the differentamino acid types. For example,  3  J  HNH R  coupling constants havethe smallest values for residues with high R propensities (Figure3A), particularly alanine (5.8 Hz), or a high population of positive  φ  angles as is seen for glycine (5.8, 6.2 Hz), and largestvalues for residues which favor   -conformations (7.2 - 7.5 Hzfor threonine, valine, and isoleucine). These differences aresignificant compared to an uncertainty of less than 0.5 Hz inthe experimental measurement.Figure 3C shows that the random coil model predictssequential ( i ,  i + 1) NOE’s for all residues. The intensity ratiobetween ( i ,  i + 1) R H - NH and NH - NH NOE’s is often usedas a measure for secondary structure since it depends on both φ  and  ψ  dihedrals. For the lysozyme sequence these randomcoil NOE intensity ratios are predicted to vary between 2.7 forresidues with higher than average   -propensity and approxi-mately 1.0 for residues with increased R -propensity (see Figure3B). Glycines show the lowest  R H - NH/NH - NH intensityratios (0.7). Predicted ratios vary by a factor of 3, which is P min RRR ≡ P RRR ( c R ) 0) ) P 1 R P 2 R P 3 R (2) P max RRR ≡ P RRR ( c R ) 1) ) min( P 1 R ,  P 2 R ,  P 3 R ) (3) P RRR ( c R ) ) P min RRR + c R ( P max RRR - P min RRR ) (4) w RRR ) 1 + c R ( P max RRR  /  P min RRR - 1) (5) P i R ) ( P i R - ∑  j * i P  j R P i R - P min RRR ) w i R + ( P i R ∑  j * i P  j R w  j R ) w i R + P RRR ( c R );  i ) 1, 2, 3 (6) w i R ) P i R - P RRR ( c R ) P i R - P i R ∑  j * i (1 - ω  j R ) P  j R - P min RRR ;  i ) 1,2,3 (7) Conformations of Denatured States of Proteins  J. Phys. Chem., Vol. 100, No. 7, 1996   2663  small compared to the overall range of intensity ratios of up toa factor of 10 3 observed in NOESY spectra of native stateproteins.In rigid molecules, NOE’s may be observed between protonsthat are up to 5 Å apart, depending on the overall correlationtime of the molecule and the signal-to-noise level of the data.In the case of multiple conformations which interconvert rapidly,two protons may show an NOE even for a sparsely populatedconformation if the two protons are sufficiently close in space.For example, conformers with interproton distances of 2.5, 3.5,or 4.5 Å will have similar detectable NOE intensities if theyare populated 2, 12, or 53% of the time, respectively. Figure3C demonstrates that a number of medium range NOE’s areexpected to be observed even for a highly disordered state andthat the pattern of predicted NOE’s is nonuniform. For the threefragments considered here 59 ( i ,  i + 2) and 7 ( i ,  i + 3) NOE’sare predicted. The  R H - NH( i ,  i  +  2) NOE’s are the mostfrequently predicted medium range NOE’s. These NOE’s wouldnot be observed for a   -strand (interproton distance  >  5.5 Å)and would be very weak for a regular  R -helix (interprotondistance 4.3 Å). However, in a mixed   R -conformation the R H - NH( i ,  i  +  2) distance can be as short as 3.7 Å whichtherefore contributes strongly to the  d  - 6 averaged intensity since   R -conformers are populated approximately 25% of the time.Seven NH - NH( i ,  i + 2) NOE’s are predicted; these distancesare short for segments with high   R L  propensities and are thuspredicted for glycines and asparagines in the  i  +  1 position.Two R H - NH( i ,  i + 3) NOE’s in the segments 54 - 57 and 104 - 107 are predicted; the  R H - NH( i ,  i  +  3) distance is short forpeptides in  RRR  or   RR -conformations (3.4 and 4.2 Å,respectively). Similarly the five predicted   H - NH( i ,  i  +  3)NOE’s should be observed in RRR and   RR conformations (3.6and 3.2 Å, respectively). (b) Comparison of the Cooperative and NoncooperativeModels.  Although in many cases a random coil model withonly local interactions seems to provide a reasonable descriptionof the conformational populations adopted in disordered peptidesand denatured proteins, the effects of cooperativity, particularlywith regard to helix formation, have also been considered. Forexample, consider the two extremes where a peptide of threeamino acids is either (A) fully random or (B) fully cooperativefor a situation in which the individual R space populations ( φ , ψ ’sin the R region of the Ramachandran map; see Figure 1, A andB) are given as 50% for each residue. The species where allresidues are in the R conformation ( RRR ) is then populated by12.5% of the molecules for the random case A and by 50% forthe cooperative case B. These two extreme states would giveidentical values for NMR parameters which probe the confor-mation of a single residue such as  3  J  HNH R  coupling constants,but significantly different intensities for medium range NOE’ssuch as  R H - NH( i ,  i  +  3). Figure 3D shows the predictedNOE’s assuming a cooperativity of   c R )  0.2 for the threesegments. For the cooperative case significantly larger numbersof NH - NH( i ,  i + 2), R H - NH( i ,  i + 3), and   H - NH( i ,  i + 3)NOE’s are predicted, whereas the number of predicted  R H - NH( i ,  i  +  2) and   H - NH( i ,  i  +  2) NOE’s increases onlyslightly. Thus, as anticipated, clusters of ( i ,  i + 3) NOE’s arepredicted when R space is populated by three adjacent residuesin a cooperative manner. (c) Comparisons with NMR Data for Denatured Lysozyme. The predicted NMR parameters for a random coil state can beused as a framework for interpreting the experimental dataobtained from denatured proteins and isolated peptides. Thisis demonstrated here by a comparison of the predictions forhen lysozyme with experimental NMR data for urea denaturedlysozyme and disordered peptide fragments taken from thelysozyme sequence.Figure 4 shows a comparison of predicted  3  J  HNH R  couplingconstants with  3  J  HNH R  data derived from several peptide frag-ments of lysozyme. 39,51,52 The good correlation (  R  )  0.76)suggests that local conformational preferences of the peptide Figure 3.  Predictions of NMR parameters for residues 19 - 24, 50 - 55, and 95 - 119 of hen egg-white lysozyme. (A)  3  J  HNH R  couplingconstants [Hz]. (B) Ratios of sequential ( i ,  i  +  1) R N/NN cross peakintensities. (C) NOE map for the random coil model. Each barrepresents a predicted NOE between two protons. NOE’s are classifiedas strong, medium, and weak as indicated by the height of the bar.Weak NOE cutoffs correspond to a distance of 4.3 Å for all proton - proton distances excluding NOE’s involving methyl groups (cutoff 4.7Å) and are determined from the intraresidue reference NOE betweenglycine H R  and NH for 10 (of 12) nonoverlapping cross peaks in theexperimental NOESY-HSQC spectrum. (D) NOE map for the coop-erative model at a cooperativity level of   c R )  0.2. Figure 4.  A comparison of residue specific mean experimental  3  J  HNH R coupling constants with those predicted from the random coil model.The experimental values are derived from three peptide fragments of hen lysozyme (residues 13 - 33, 86 - 102, and 105 - 115) each of whichappears, from the NOE and chemical shift data, to be largely disordered.The coupling constants were extracted from cross peaks in DQF-COSYspectra using a fitting procedure. 60 The vertical lines show ( 1 standarddeviation. The correlation coefficient for the data is  R  )  0.76. 2664  J. Phys. Chem., Vol. 100, No. 7, 1996   Fiebig et al.  backbone in denatured states are similar to the ones found innative states. Moreover, Serrano et al. 40 have shown that theobserved H R  chemical shifts for unstructured peptides correlatewell with predicted chemical shifts, using similar databasederived  φ , ψ  distributions and a parametrization for the H R chemical shift deviation from shifts measured in short peptidesas previously introduced by Wishart et al. 53 These two findingsprovide evidence which supports the use of PDB derivedpopulations of   φ , ψ  angles to model denatured states.A comparison of the random coil NOE predictions withNOE’s identified in a  1 H- 15 N NOESY-HSQC spectrum of lysozyme in 8M urea shows that for several regions of thesequence we see significant agreement between prediction andexperiment. This is the case for residues 95 - 119, shown inFigure 5A, where four of the six experimentally observed ( i ,  i + 3) NOE’s are predicted by the model (black bars). This resultsuggests that for this region of the chain conformationalpreferences are determined predominantly by local interactions.For other parts of the sequence, such as residues 19 - 24 and50 - 55, there is a significantly poorer agreement for the randomcoil model which may indicate residual nonrandom structure.In some cases the nature of such localized structure has beencharacterized. For example, for residues 19 - 24 (Figure 5A)an interaction between the NH of glycine 22 and the aromaticring of tyrosine 20 is likely to be responsible for the observationof two ( i ,  i + 2) NOE’s which are not predicted by the model.Such a tyrosine - glycine interaction has been observed previ-ously in denatured BPTI. 54 The existence of this interaction isfurther substantiated by chemical shift analysis of the H N andH R  protons of residues 20 - 24, which show among the largestdeviations from random coil chemical shifts for both the ureadenatured state 50 at pH 2 and lysozyme peptide fragments. 52,55 For residues 50 - 55 a much higher agreement betweenprediction and experiment is achieved with the cooperativemodel. In this region, four of the five NOE’s which are notpredicted by the random coil model (white bars in Figure 5A)are predicted correctly in Figure 5B (black bars). A model of localized cooperative interactions in this segment is found tobe consistent with the experimental NOE data. In fact H N andH R  chemical shifts for residues 50 - 55 of urea denaturedlysozyme are significantly perturbed from random coil chemicalshifts. 50 Threonine 51 has been previously identified as one of the most perturbed residue side chains of the lysozyme denaturedstate spectra due to interactions with tyrosine 53. 56 Additionally,experiments on alcohol-denatured lysozyme show that residues50 - 55 adopt a helical conformation in 70% (v/v) trifluoro-ethanol (TFE). 57 (d) Comparison of Experimental NOE Data with Predic-tions for Random Sequences.  To evaluate more rigorouslythe predictive power of the random coil model, we havepredicted NOE patterns for randomized lysozyme sequences,generated by randomly permuting the order of the 129 aminoacid residues. After calculating the NOE pattern maps for thesesequences, the agreement between experimental NOE’s andNOE’s predicted for the random sequences was measuredutilizing a residual index  R  defined asIn this equation  N  exp  is the number of observed NOE’s,  N  exp - the number of observed NOE’s which are not predicted, and  N  theory - the number of predicted NOE’s which are not observed.We exclude predicted NOE’s which cannot be compared to theexperimental data due to spectral overlap. Table 1 shows  R values for the predicted NOE map of the full wild type lysozymesequence and its peptide segments for the noncooperative andcooperative models. Additionally, predictions were undertakenon 20 randomized lysozyme sequences. The average “random”  R  values  〈  R rand 〉  of these predictions and their standard deviationsare also listed in the table. It is found that in particular ( i ,  i + 3) NOE predictions differ significantly from predictions forrandom sequences by more than 2 standard deviations. Conclusions Characterization of the conformations sampled in denaturedstates of proteins is of major importance in attempting to gaininsight into the relative stabilities and structural biases that existwithin local regions of polypeptide sequences. These are of considerable interest because of their likely significance in theearly stages of protein folding. The random coil modeldescribed in this paper is based upon the use of specific  φ ,  ψ distributions for amino acid types determined from analysis of structures in the protein data bank. The present method providesthe means for characterizing the conformations in denaturedproteins and individual peptides. It is known that the sameproteins denatured in different ways can have different NMRparameters and other characteristics. 56,57 By analyzing theseinsight into the role of specific denaturants can be gained.The good correlation between NMR coupling constantspredicted from the model and experimental data for peptide Figure 5.  Comparison of predicted and experimental NOE maps forsegments 19 - 24, 50 - 55, and 95 - 119 of lysozyme for the randomcoil (A) and the cooperative (B) models. In order to compare with thesimulation, all experimental NOE’s involving side chains are designatedas   . Predicted and observed NOE’s are shown in black bars, NOE’sobserved but not predicted are shown in open bars, and NOE’s predictedbut not observed are shown in dashed bars. Strong, medium, and weakNOE’s are indicated by the height of the bar. Experimental NOE’swere extracted from 3D- 15 N-filtered NOESY-HSQC experiments usinga 200 ms NOE mixing time performed on a 3 mM sample of lysozymein 8 M urea at pH 2. Further experimental details will be publishedelsewhere. 50 TABLE 1:  R  Values for NOE Predictions noncooperative cooperativeNOE type  R a  R b 〈  R rand 〉 c  R a  R b NN( i ,  i + 2) 1.0 0.5 1.22 ( 0.16 3.1 1.67 R N( i ,  i + 2) 0.29 0.29 0.46 ( 0.07 0.33 0.21   N( i ,  i + 2) 1.08 0.67 1.21 ( 0.12 0.92 0.67 R N( i ,  i + 3) 1.0 1.0 2.26 ( 0.51 3.25 1.0   N( i ,  i + 3) 1.0 0.6 2.19 ( 0.47 0.75 0.2 a Full sequence.  b Residues 19 - 24, 50 - 55, 95 - 119.  c Average andstandard deviation of 20 randomized lysozyme sequences.  R ) (  N  exp - +  N  theory - )/   N  exp  (8) Conformations of Denatured States of Proteins  J. Phys. Chem., Vol. 100, No. 7, 1996   2665
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Digital Media: Life-Changing Online

Digital Media: Life-Changing Online. Introduction

  • Clare Brant King's College, London
  • Rob Gallagher King's College, London
Keywords: power; agencies; stories; mediatization; capital

This special issue follows on from the IABA Europe 2017 conference held at King’s College London hosted by the Ego-Media research group and the Centre for Life-Writing Research, who thank everyone who contributed. The conference theme was “Life Writing, Europe and New Media”: anodyne terms, in the interests of inclusivity, yet their congruence raises some big questions. Is the term life writing sufficiently able to absorb digital and social media as part of its assumed domain? How do offline and online forms of life writing relate to each other? In a global internet age, what if anything is specific to Europe or European practices? And, agonisingly for the hosts in the wake of Brexit, in what ways is it possible for Britain to persist in being European?

Digital Media: Life-Changing Online


Category Archives: Parents

Important Research on the Role Parents Play in Children’s STEM Success

Important Research on the Role Parents Play in Children’s STEM Success

Proficiency in STEM skills is seen as a key component for success in the 21st century workplace. Yet observers note an achievement gap in STEM education and careers, with white males leading the way and members of other groups falling behind. This issue is so troubling that the US Department of Education has set achieving equality in STEM education as a main priority.

One way to encourage more diversity in STEM fields is to involve parents in their child’s STEM education. In fact, the National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) feels so strongly about parents playing an active role in STEM education that they issued a position statement on the topic. This statement suggests that even simple actions from parents, such as encouraging children to ask questions or playing with children outdoors, can go a long way toward a child’s success in STEM education.

Several research studies have investigated the relationship between parent involvement, student learning in STEM, and career paths in STEM. Read on to learn about some key findings.

Student Motivation

Additionally, the researchers found that the positive effects lingered beyond high school. Students whose parents had discussed the brochures and websites with them were more likely to take STEM courses in college and be motivated to pursue a STEM career afterwards. The researchers concluded that one successful method for increasing the number of people pursuing STEM careers is to focus on parental involvement in children’s STEM education.

Women in STEM

In 2017, researchers at the University of Michigan and the University of Arkansas released a working paper that investigates causes for the gender gap in college-level STEM education. These researchers studied data from national surveys to determine whether girls’ perceived abilities in math, tested abilities in math, and decisions about pursuing a STEM major in college were related to their parents’ careers.

When they analyzed the data, the researchers found that girls believed their abilities in math were lower, tested lower in math, and chose to pursue a STEM major in college less often. However, the researchers found different results for girls with at least one parent working in a STEM field.

Although girls with a parent working in a STEM field did not appear to think differently about their math abilities, they had higher math test scores and were more likely to choose a STEM major. The researchers concluded that having a parent who works in a STEM field could benefit girls by providing them with a role model for success.

Math Anxiety

A 2015 publication from the Association for Psychological Science reveals the negative effects parents can have on their children’s performance in math. Although studies often mention the positive effects parents can have on children’s STEM education, this study points out that the opposite can also occur.

In this study, the researchers surveyed parents about their math anxiety and how often they help their children with math homework. The researchers also collected information about the first- and second-grade children of these parents, focusing on their levels of math anxiety and math performance.

The researchers found that when parents reported high levels of math anxiety and also helped their children with math homework frequently, the children developed high levels of math anxiety over the school year. Additionally, the researchers found these children also had lower scores in math performance over the school year.

Interestingly, the researchers found that when parents reported high levels of math anxiety but didn’t help their children with math homework frequently, the children did not develop math anxiety and did not have lower math scores. The researchers concluded that math anxiety and performance are not related to genetic factors, but rather are learned behaviors.

Rather than suggest that parents with math anxiety not help their children with math homework, the researchers cite educational research that suggests involved parents are beneficial to student success. They recommend parents receive tools and other support so they can more confidently help their children with math homework.


In a case that could have wide-ranging national significance for gay rights, a federal appeals court in New York ruled on Monday that a landmark civil rights law bars employers from discriminating against their workers based on sexual orientation.
The decision was a setback for the Justice Department, which under President Trump had unexpectedly interceded in a discrimination lawsuit filed by a sky-diving instructor. The department had argued that Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act did not explicitly cover sexual-orientation discrimination in the workplace, a stance that put it at odds with another federal body, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
In rejecting the Justice Department’s argument, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit became the second appeals court to rule recently that the Civil Rights Act, which outlaws bias in the workplace on the basis of “race, color, religion, sex or national origin,” should also be extended to include sexual orientation. A third appellate court in Atlanta has ruled differently. Mike Malloy discusses this.


Lixin Fishball Noodles never fails to tip my traditional food fare senses.
Also available at the following Food Republic outlets : BreadTalk IHQ, I12 Katong, ION Orchard (Food Opera), Parkway Parade, Serangoon NEX, Shaw House and Suntec City.
Check out #cptslowyeoxfoodrepublicsg for more of my @foodrepublicsg adventures


American Revolution : No Taxation Without Representation Essay

1380 Words Feb 27th, 2016 6 Pages
Americans felt they deserved all the rights of Englishmen. The British, on the other hand, felt that the colonies were created to be used in the way that best suited the crown and parliament. This conflict is embodied in one of the rallying cries of the American Revolution: No Taxation Without Representation. The road to revolution built slowly over time. Many events fed the growing desire of the thirteen colonies for independence. Following are the major events that led to the Revolution. the French and Indian war between Britain and France ended with the victorious British deeply in debt and demanding more revenue from the colonies. With the defeat of the French, the colonies became less dependent on Britain for protection. The Proclamation of 1763, prohibited settlement beyond the Appalachian Mountains. While Britain did not intend to harm the colonists, many colonists took offense at this order. The sugar act of 1764 raised revenue by increasing duties on sugar imported from the West Indies.
Currency act of 1764 when the Parliament argued that colonial currency had caused devaluation harmful to British trade. They banned American assemblies from issuing paper bills or bills of credit. The stamp act of1765 required tax stamps on many items and documents including playing cards, newspapers, and marriage licenses. Prime Minister George Grenville stated that this direct tax was intended for the colonies to pay for defense. Previous taxes imposed by Britain had been…

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EEOC Seeks Public Input on Proposed Enforcement Guidance on Unlawful Harassment

The EEOC issued Proposed Enforcement Guidance on Unlawful Harassment on January 10, 2017. It is designed to consolidate numerous agency guidelines into one document and addresses hostile work environment harassment prohibited by statutes enforced by the EEOC. The Guidance examines three primary elements of a harassment claim. First, is the conduct based on a legally protected status; second, is the conduct sufficiently severe or pervasive to create a hostile work environment; and third, is there a basis for employer liability. The 75-page treatise covers key case law since the Supreme Court first recognized harassment as an actionable form of discrimination in 1986.

There is nothing groundbreaking in the Guidance. However, it is a worthy read for any human resources professional as a reminder of how broad actionable harassment claims can be. For instance, harassment can involve conduct in the workplace as well as outside of it. Sex-based harassment includes more than asking co-workers out on dates: it includes conduct aimed at someone based on their sex; sex stereotyping; conduct based on pregnancy/childbirth and conduct based on gender identity (including sexual orientation). Harassment claims can be founded on actions taken based on the perception that someone is within a protected class; or associational, that is, if a person associates with someone outside of his/her protected class. Non-employees can create a hostile work environment, the guidance citing as examples independent contractors, customers, patients, nursing home residents and employees of one’s clients. Some of these principles may not be on an employer's radar until it is too late.

Of interest, the Guidance addresses off-work conduct, including: social media. The following example comes from the guidance:

Conduct on Social Media Platform Outside Workplace. Brad and Al work on an all-male construction crew.  Al is the crew superintendent, and he regularly brings pornographic magazines to the construction site to share with the other crew members during lunch breaks.  After Brad repeatedly refuses to look at the magazines, Al and the other crew members begin taunting Brad.  Al uses his smartphone to post comments on his personal Facebook page calling Brad a “princess” and “f____t.”  Brad and the other crew members see Al’s posts about Brad, and they talk about the posts at work and begin directing epithets at Brad, simulating sex acts around him, and exposing themselves to him.  An investigator finds that the Facebook posts contributed to a hostile work environment even though they were written on a personal smartphone and some were written after-hours.

This example is a startling reminder of how important it is to have an effective anti-harassment policy and the publication of that policy so all employees understand what is expected of them in and out of work.

The last section of the guidance then focuses on the components of an effective anti-harassment policy. This policy should define prohibited conduct; be disseminated throughout the workplace; be understandable to workers, including those with limited English skills; require supervisors to report or address harassment; and provide various ways to report harassment, not just through a direct supervisor. The complaint procedures should include an effective investigative process, provide for prompt corrective action, and have adequate confidentiality protection and anti-retaliation provisions.

The Guidance closes with the positive changes the EEOC has seen in harassment prevention. The task force that studied work place harassment identified five core principles in businesses having positive work environments:

Committed and engaged leadership;

  • Consistent and demonstrated accountability;
  • Strong and comprehensive harassment policies;
  • Trusted and accessible complaint procedures; and

The take away for employment attorneys, general counsel, and human resources professionals is to ensure that your client or company has an adequate anti-harassment policy with a sound complaint procedure; effective distribution and communication of this policy; training in critical anti-harassment principles such as identifying what is harassing conduct and the legal requirement to eliminate it from the work place; vigilance in overseeing behavior in the workplace and, to the extent possible, outside the workplace, with the goal of providing a workplace free of conduct based on employees' protected characteristics.

The proposed Enforcement Guidance on Unlawful Harassment is available for public input until Feb. 9, 2017. Input may be submitted here.

Further information on this guidance or topic is available from Linda K. Horras or any Hinshaw employment attorney.

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(ANIMAL SCIENCE) Being the largest mammal on the planet has its advantages and disadvantages, but what happens when you don’t stop growing? The blue whale, scientists say, is doing just that. Why hasn’t the largest animal on earth stopped growing when other mammal species are shrinking? Read more to find out why and what this could mean for blue whales. — Global Animal
This Blue Whale is currently the biggest its species has ever been. Photo Credit: Getty Images

Discovery News, Anna Salleh

Blue whales are the largest animal to have ever lived on Earth and — for now — are continuing to get bigger, say researchers.

The findings come out of a study by evolutionary biologist Alistair Evans, of Monash University in Melbourne, and colleagues.

“The biggest animal ever is potentially still getting bigger,” says Evans, whose study is reported this week in Proceedings of the Royal Academy of Sciences.

When the dinosaurs and their marine cousins went extinct 65 million years ago, mammals took the opportunity to take advantage of the space these creatures had previously occupied, says Evans.

He and colleagues investigated the increase in the size of mammals since this time.

The study estimated the body size of hundreds of species in 28 different orders of animals in 20 time periods over the past 70 million years.

The researchers used teeth, skulls and limb bones to work out the size of the animal, based on comparisons with current day species.

The researchers found it took whales 5 million generations, or 30 million years, to go from 25 kilograms to 190 tons — the weight of a blue whale.

By contrast land mammals got bigger half as quickly as marine mammals.

For example, it took 10,000 million generations for a mammal to get 5000 times bigger, and over twice as long to evolve form the size of a mouse to the size of elephant.

Elephants have been the largest land animal for the past 10 million years, and before that the record was held by a now-extinct rhino-like animal, says Evans.

The researchers believe one reason for this faster evolution in size among marine animals is that it’s easier to grow bigger in the sea.

With the water holding you up, fewer body modifications are required to handle the increase in weight.

Interestingly the new study found that almost all mammals are smaller today than they were in the last major ice ages — a million or so years ago.

Evans says this may be because the biggest animals have been hunted to extinction, or because the weather is warmer and there is less advantage to being big.

But the blue whales are an exception, he says. “It’s continued to get bigger,” says Evans.

He says ocean currents boosting the amount of krill around the Antarctica are likely to be responsible for this growth.

Co-author zoologist Dr Erich Fitzgerald of Museum Victoria says whales in general have continued to get larger and could theoretically continue to grow assuming they could get the food they require.

But he says the future is uncertain given such things as overfishing, which threatens whales’ food source.

“Their maximum size may be peaking during our lifetime,” says Fitzgerald.

Evans says there are certain advantages to increasing in size.

For example, your relative metabolic rate decreases with size which means you don’t have to eat as much food per gram of your own tissue. “It’s more efficient to be big,” he says.

This means you can eat more abundant low energy-dense foods, like trees, leaves and grass.

And you can avoid being eaten by other animals, can store more energy and can travel further distances.

Small animals by contrast have a high metabolic rate and need to eat insects, seeds and fruit, which are less available.

But not all mammals got larger after the demise of the dinosaurs. Some, especially those isolated on islands, got smaller — including now extinct dwarf mammoths off the coast of California and dwarf elephants in the Mediterranean.

Getting smaller can have advantages too, adds Evans, including helping animals to adapt to a smaller food resource.

Interestingly, these animals evolved smaller size much faster than those evolving larger size, the researchers found.

More Discovery News: http://news.discovery.com/animals/blue-whale-larger-than-ever-120131.html#mkcpgn=rssnws1

Read more articles about big blue whales!

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What Does Supermajority Mean?

Understanding Supermajority

Examples of critical issues that might require a supermajority vote include a merger or acquisition, executive changes (including the hiring or firing of a CEO), the decision to hire an investment bank to go public (or, in reverse, to leave the public markets and go private). A major corporate decision that does not require a vote is the declaration of dividends, which the Board of Directors (BOD) of a company decides on independently. However, most other important decisions that affect the direction a company will take are subject to a vote.

Supermajorities and Voting Shareholders

A supermajority of voters is usually counted as a company’s shareholder meeting. This can be an annual meeting or a non-regular meeting throughout the year, depending on the nature and urgency of the matter being voted upon. Shareholder meetings are generally administrative sessions that follow a specific format that is decided in advance. The format is usually a parliamentary procedure, with specific time allocated for each speaker and protocol for shareholders who wish to make statements.

In May 2018, Duke Energy (NYSE: DUK) issued a statement noting that a binding company-sponsored proposal was not approved after it did not achieve the required 80 percent of total outstanding shares. The proposed amendment was to eliminate supermajority voting requirements in Duke’s Restated Certificate of Incorporation of Duke Energy Corporation.


Since Nigeria got her independence from Britain in 1960, the country’s political structural arrangement has been under one central government called Federal Government (via a Federal Republic) and was blessed with unquantifiable natural, human and material resources. In spite of that, the average Nigerian’s income per capita does not give the real picture due to the high income inequalities in the country. As majority of Nigerians are living in abject poverty, particularly in the Northeastern area. However, under the Federal system arrangement, instead of having a smooth level of interaction among individual ethnic groups, cultures, traditions and religions, there thrives a persistent lack of trust among Nigerians due to fear of domination, marginalization, control and intolerance. This ugly development led to the acquisition of fire arms among ethnic, political, religious and social militia groups. Similarly, with the return of the country to democratic rule, the situation has worsened with the politicians prosecuting their political ambitions. Furthermore, the situation also became more terrible when these groups started fighting government and its agencies. As a result, many people were killed while millions of people were displaced and properties worth millions of Naira were also destroyed more especially in the North-east and north central areas. The insecurity situation in the country was alleged to have been attributed to some factors. Among this include poor government policies, corruption, poverty, unemployment, poor leadership, weak judiciary system etc. Consequently, this affected the region economically, socially, politically etc. Finally, recommendations were made and that Government should improve standard of living of the people through the creation of more entrepreneurship centers across the country more especially in the North and North-east in particular. Also, government should intensify more effort in fighting against corruption and this can be done through good legislation and stiff penalties for those found wanting.

Nigeria is a West African country with more than 250 ethnic groups and with an estimated population of about 170,123,740, according to the 2006 census (Akinjide 2013). It is by far the most populated country in the whole of Africa. Although Nigeria’s GDP per capita has been increased through the course of time in nominal US dollar terms, many Nigerians, unfortunately, are still living in abject poverty in spite of huge amount of human and material resources. The average income per capita does not give the real picture due to the high income inequality in the country. However, since Nigeria got her independence from Britain in 1960, the country’s political structural arrangement has been under one central government. This was to maintain some degree of independence and interdependence and as well as create supremacy authority centrally while component states retain a considerable amount of semi autonomy.

Consequently, under this arrangement, the level of interaction between individual ethnic groups, cultures, traditions, religions from different backgrounds was not easy thereby translated into ethnic and political misunderstanding, mistrust, dominations, conflicts and crises as one may not be considerate with one another. As a result, there are fear, suspicions, intolerance, grieves and greed domination among most communities in the country and especially in the North which has so many ethnic minorities.

Furthermore, it also created fear of not getting one’s fair share of scarce commodities (Daily Times, 1984). However, in an attempt to bring this over 250 groups of people under Federal state system, it created more problems than solving due to fear of deprivation

The North occupies about 70% of the land mass of the country; it also has the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the country (World Bank 2001). Similarly, it has the lowest rate of child enrolment in schools, highest number of unemployed young people in the country, highest levels of poverty as compared to the other parts of the country. Consequently, the region is faced with challenges of security of lives and property and has remained a major issue today. These problems include inter-ethic and interreligious conflict, insurgency and terrorism such as the Boko-Haram among others. According to Temple, (2013), the indices that measure human development are by far poorer in the 19 northern states of Nigeria compared with the rest of the country ranging from the girl-child education to the Almajiri system, from women empowerment to the economic viability of states, from an immediate marshal planlike attempt at addressing the areas in conflict to how to create cooperation between states and groups. He further concluded that as a result of the above, the region was faced with the worst security challenges since independence.

Similarly, other security challenges facing the region include armed robbery and kidnapping, apart from insurgency and terrorism that have spread across the region like a wild fire across the polity, which seriously needs to be given adequate attention by the Government at all levels as pointed out by Salawu (2010). Kidnapping is still young in the north, but is fast developing and penetrating almost every area in the region. Kidnapping means taking a person away against the person’s will, usually for the purpose of ransom. Today, people are getting kidnapped almost on a daily basis across the region, through so many criminal and terrorist activities (Innocent, 2012).

The situation has become so bad that needs not only the attention of joint federal-states government cooperation but also the international community; just the same way attention is being given to the Ukraine versus Russian conflicts, Syria, Iraq, Lebanon versus Hezbollah conflict, Israeli versus Palestinian conflicts, Libya, Egypt, Yemen etc. It is against this backdrop that today, the streets and most areas in different parts of the North and North-east in particular are no longer safe for honest and hardworking for the fear of being killed due to insurgency or terrorist act. Consequently, no part of the North and the Federal Capital of Nigeria Abuja is immune from this insecurity.

While every northerner and governments at all levels are concerned about insurgency and terrorism activities like Boko-Haram, ethnic, religious and tribal leaders are also seeking for solutions to end them. Unfortunately efforts were not put or channel to address the root causes of the problem. Example, when the issue of kidnapping started in the Niger Delta areas by the Militants, an average Niger Delta man would believe that it was about resource control. In the word of Joseph (2012) initially, it was the kidnap of expatriates and majority of the other Nigerians and northerners in particular believed that it was a southern affair. Until recently, when the issue of kidnapping became commercialized and was not limited to Niger Delta or Southerners but rather gradually got commercialized and has become a ‘lucrative ventures and luring young people and gradually spread across northern Nigeria. Consequently, kidnapping business has changed from being in predominantly in the Niger Delta to the North as well. Such kidnap victims includes parents, grandparents, students etc.

The central pillars of Nigerian national security was the safeguarding of the Nigerian sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of the State as contained in the 1979 constitution. However, while the state remains nominally a sovereign and fulfils a modicum of the functions of a sovereign government, the central government has become so weak and ineffective and lacks the ability to provide simple basic public and social services. In view of the above, the Nigerian government, in 2013, due to lack of control over much of its territory, led to the seizure of some parts of Adamawa, Borno and Yobe states by the Boko Haram. According to the former Inspector-General of Police, Hafiz Ringim:

The National Security could be regarded as the measures, facilities and systems put in place by a nation to secure its citizens and resources from danger and the risk of infiltration, sabotage, subversion or theft etc.

While according to a group of civil society organizations, the term national security’ implies the absence of threat to life, property and socio-economic well being of the people”. They further stated that: This is contained in line of the Nigerian constitution Section 14(2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution which states that;

the security and welfare of the people shall be the primary purpose of any government; and the participation by the people in their government shall be ensured in accordance with the provisions of this Constitution.

However, in spite of the constitutional provisions which call for the respect to the economic well being of the people, the Constitution has also imposed a duty on the State to guarantee “the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice, and equality of status and opportunity.” To this effect, the State shall direct its policies towards ensuring that unfortunately, the material resources of the nation are not harnessed and distributed as best as possible to serve the common good and that “the economic system is not operated in such manner as to permit the concentration of wealth or the means of production and exchange in the hands of few individuals or of a group.

Statement of the Problem

According to Omoyibo and Akpomera (2013), security is a concept that is prior to the state, and the state exists in order to provide that concept. While to Thomas (1996) security is the prime responsibility of the state. The State of insecurity in Nigeria is becoming worrisome and disturbing considering the high rate of killings, bombing, kidnapping, conflicts, wars, and clashes etc which innocent people fall to the guns of criminals in the country today. In the past recent months, no week passes without report of unknown gunmen taking human lives in the streets of northern Nigeria and north-east in particular.

The question is what are the root causes of all these killings? What are the consequences as well as solutions to this? These rhetorical questions may not need answers but it is mind-boggling that despite huge amount of naira voted every year in the name of security by the Government yet Nigeria security situation still remains uncontained. Although whenever there’s a problem there’s always the cause but the case becomes a bigger problem when the cause is not just one or two but an accumulation of national problems. What are the remote and immediate causes of insecurity in Nigerian and how can the situation be resolved? Bad leadership, corruption, illiteracy and many more are all responsible for the state of the country. The leadership of the country has contributed so much to the insecurity Nigeria is facing today.

Consequently, the displaced persons, especially in the north-east and north central where there was high level of ethno/ state of insecurity in the country, has brought about so many negative effects, including millions of internally political crises. This has led to political, social and economic disruptions which in turn lead to slow economic, social, religious and political development. The world now sees Nigeria as a very violent nation and this has destroyed the reputation of Nigerians across the world. There is no doubt that a lot of measures need to be put in place to resolve insecurity in the country. New security policies, thinking and strategies need to be developed; corruption has to be stopped by all means; the government and the people need to develop trust and work together to resolve the insecurity situation for Nigeria to move forward. Insecurity in the country is no longer talked about as a thing that occurs at night. Now, even in broad day light, crimes are committed, killings are perpetrated. Most killings are done in broad day light with the assailants proving difficult to be found. The entire scenario has become a game of shooting at each other without missing. If nothing is done to bring the life threatening situation in the country under control, it will give room to anarchy.In the light of the above which this paper attempt to address.

Conceptual Framework for Analysis

Security could be defined as the relative freedom which individuals, groups and nations enjoy from danger, risk, or threat of harm, injury, or loss to personnel and/or property. The cause, whether deliberately or by accident or for the state of being certain, adverse effects by some agent under defined conditions. It is also seen as the degree of resistance to, or protection from, harm and it applies to any vulnerable and valuable asset, such as a person, dwelling, community, nation, or organization. According to the Institute for Security and Open Methodologies (ISECOM) in the OSSTMM 3, security provides “a form of protection where a separation is created between the assets and the threat.” These separations are generically called controls, and sometimes include changes to the asset or the threat. However, if whatever went contrary to the above, this shows that there was insecurity.

Since Boko-Haram insurgency and other terrorist acts took over some parts of Nigeria, particularly the north-east, it gained international attention & recognition and become a major national menace more especially after the kidnapping of Chibok girls from their schools in Borno state. Others include the killings and slaughtering of students in their dormitories in Buni-Yadi and Potiskum all InYobe State and later the kidnapping and abduction of other women and children from their homes and communities. Due to these criminalities and terrorist activities, so many local government areas in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe lost to the Boko-Haram and remained under their control for almost two years from 2013-early to second quarter of 2015.

The question is why is there so much insecurity in our societies today? What are their causes, solutions etc? In an attempt to answer these questions, the researcher used frustration-aggression theory to explain the causes of insecurity in Nigeria. Frustration is the condition which exists when a goal-response suffers interference such as unemployment, poverty, corruption, weak judiciary system etc. While aggression could be regarded as an act whose goal-response is injury to an organism the theory believed that social movements occur for example the formation of ethnic militias in the country to fight the federal, state and local government due to their failures to oblige the social contract obligation. As a result, their frustration leads to collective and more often than not lead to aggressive behavior. Frustration has a variety of sources and can take two forms. First, it can be absolute, which happens when people do not have enough to survive, and second, it can be relative, which happen when people have enough to survive but have less than those around them. This explained the true situation of the Nigerian society today. The gap between those “who have and have not” are getting wide and wider day by day.

This hypothesis or theory of aggression was propounded by John Dollard, Neal E. Miller et al. in 1939, and further developed by Leonard Berkowitz in 1969. The theory says that aggression is the result of blocking, or frustrating, when a person’s efforts to attain a goal failed to achieve the said objective, it causes violence. The researcher adopted this frustration-aggression theory to explain the causes of violence and insecurity. This became apparent when the source of the frustration cannot be challenged, the aggression gets displaced onto innocent targets as currently is being done by the Boko Haram sect. However, while violence and other related terrorist activities are condemnable in any society and must be fought at all cost, government must address these causes of insecurity or else whatever the success achieved, it is going to be mirage.

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Sibeal has always known that she is destined for a spiritual life, and is committed to it with all her heart. The only thing left for her to do before she enters the nemetons is to spend the summer visiting her sisters, Muirrin and Clodagh, on the northern island of Inis Eala.But Sibeal has barely set foot on the island before a freak storm out at sea sinks a ship before her eyes. In spite of frantic efforts, only three survivors are fished alive from the water, and one of them, a man Sibeal names Ardal, clings to life by the merest thread.Life continues on the island, as it must, and Sibeal befriends Ardal as he begins to regain his health. But it becomes clear there is something unusual about the three shipwrecked strangers. Why won't the beautiful Svala speak? And what is it that the gravely ill Ardal can't remember – or won't tell? When a visiting warrior is found dead at the bottom of a cliff, and an attempt is made on Ardal's life, Sibeal finds herself a pawn in a deadly game. The truth will be far more astonishing than she could ever have believed – and the consequences for Sibeal unimaginable.